Old Japanese was the first form of the Japanese language. The script (the way it was written) came from the Chinese script. This was all based on characters which were like little pictures (called kanji today, e.g. 中古日本語). During the Late Old period two new scripts were invented: Hiragana and Katakana. These were much simpler and described the sound of the syllables. It made reading and writing much easier. Famous books were written during this period such as The Tale of Genji, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, The Tales of Ise and many others.

Many changes took place to the way the language was pronounced during this period. Consonants that had been spoken through the nose became voiced, some long vowels were added, some consonants slid into one another. The syllables became simpler: instead of 88 there were only 66. Instead of two types of -i, -e, and –o there were only one. Some verbs ended in a consonant, others in a vowel. The changes in grammar included different ways that adjectives could be declined.